Africa

Gambia: Pres. to celebrate 22-year rule amid criticism

The president's defenders tout his many projects and popularity, but critics decry human right violations and repression

22.07.2016 - Update : 25.07.2016
Gambia: Pres. to celebrate 22-year rule amid criticism Gambia President Yahya Jammeh

by Mustapha Darboe

BANJUL, Zambia

Opponents of President Yahya Jammeh of Gambia, a small West African nation surrounded by Senegal on all three sides, are criticizing him for falling short of his promises as he prepares to celebrate 22 years since he came to power through overthrowing the previous government.

On July 22, 1994, the Gambian leader toppled the party of the country’s founding president, Dawda Kairaba Jawara of the Peoples’ Progressive Party (PPP), on allegations of corruption and overstaying in power and promised to clean up the system with transparency, accountability, and probity.

The day has since been celebrated by the regime as one of the most important days on the national calendar, and preparations are in high gear to commemorate it on Friday, the 22nd anniversary.

Yankuba Colley, the national mobilier of Jammeh’s APRC party, argued that their “revolution” was the beginning of real development in the country, which saw rapid transformation in every development sector.

“July 22 was a revolution that fundamentally changed the economic landscape of the country… That is why we are giving it the celebration it deserves,” Colley told Anadolu Agency.

However, for his political opponents, especially members of the deposed PPP regime, Jammeh’s 22-year rule is marred with human rights violations, the repression of dissent, and suppression of press freedom and freedom of speech.

“For 22 years Gambia has been reduced to an open prison where there is systematic and continued erosion of people’s liberties, the rule of law, and good governance,” said Omar Jallow, a former agricultural minister under the deposed PPP regime at the time of the coup in 1994. “The transparency, accountability, and probity that President Jammeh said his government would introduce in governance were thrown out the door on July 22, 1994.”

He added, “The report of the Commission of Inquiry that President Jammeh set up after the coup to investigate our alleged involvement in corruption has not been published and it should have been, according to the law. That tells you that the corruption allegations leveled against us as a justification for the coup were false.”

Roads, schools, but higher debt

Jammeh is credited with building the only university in the country, hospitals, a good number of schools, the country’s only television station, and numerous road networks.

However, he has been severely criticized for human rights violations, and critics say he has degraded the country’s development to make Zambia into not just one of the world’s poorest countries, but a highly indebted one – with a public debt profile of more than 100 percent of the GDP.

A recent Amnesty International report, “Dangerous to Dissent: Human Rights Under Threat in Gambia,” criticized the Gambian regime for “consistent patterns of human right violations against” opposition members, journalists, and human rights defenders.

Sidi Sanneh, a former Gambian civil servant and now an active dissident blogger based in the U.S., told Anadolu Agency that Jammeh’s only legacy in Gambia in 22 years is “regression.”

“Gambia ranked third in the per capita GDP league table among the 16-Member ECOWAS [Economic Community of West African States] when Jammeh seized power in 1994, and today Gambia is at the bottom – ranked 16th of 16 ECOWAS countries. Even Guinea-Bissau is ranked higher,” he said.

But Colley said Jammeh has been able to rule Gambia to this day because of his popularity among Gambians, adding, “The people who are criticizing us are in the minority.”

“There is nothing like human right violations or suppression of the media in Gambia,” Colley said.

Gambia has a booming youth population, with 40 percent of the population younger than 15, and 21 percent age 15-24, but higher youth unemployment, 38 percent, and a higher poverty rate, 48 percent, are a major concern.

The country has also been one of the leading sources of migrants to Europe. Many observers believe the higher youth unemployment rate has contributed to the massive exodus of Gambian young people to Europe through North Africa to Italy and beyond.

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